8 Oscar-Winning Actors Who Took Unexpected TV Roles

These days, many of the best roles are on television, leading to Oscar-winning actors who usually focus exclusively on films making the leap onto the small screen. While it’s often surprising to see major Hollywood stars opt for television roles, the serialized nature of prestige dramas gives these all-time great actors more time to develop their characters and give three-dimensional, well-rounded performances.

From Robert De Niro’s recent Netflix role in the political thriller Zero Dayto Meryl Streep popping up in an HBO drama, these Hollywood legends' shift into the world of TV is an exciting change of pace. While in times past, there was a definite separation between movie and TV stars, these lines have been increasingly blurred as legendary names put themselves forward for TV roles. This paradigm shift represents a major development in TV being taken seriously as an artistic medium and highlights how changing viewer habits affect how Hollywood actors choose their roles.

8 Robert De Niro

Zero Day (2025)

As one of a select few actors working today who could claim the title of greatest American movie star of all time, Robert De Niro’s career speaks for itself. From his acclaimed collaborations with Martin Scorsese to his work on The Godfather Part II with Francis Ford Coppola, De Niro was a major figure of the New Hollywood movement and received two Academy Awards. With a Best Supporting Actor award for playing a young Vito Corleone and a Best Actor Oscar for his transformative performance as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, De Niro is a true Hollywood icon.

With a filmography that focused almost exclusively on feature films, it was surprising to see De Niro make his TV debut at 81 in 2025 on the Netflix political thriller Zero Day. With an impressive cast that also included Jesse Plemons and Lizzy Caplan, this tense story of a former U.S. president investigating a deadly cyberattack was highly relevant to the political divisiveness of contemporary times. While Zero Day made for engrossing viewing, it was also far from groundbreaking, and it was disappointing that De Niro’s late-career embracement of the small screen wasn’t with a more compelling project.

7 Kate Winslet

Mare of Easttown (2021)

Kate Winslet is truly one of the greatest actresses of modern times, who kicked off her acting debut with a bang with the woefully underrated Peter Jackson movie Heavenly Creatures before achieving worldwide recognition for Titanic. Winslet has been recognized by the Academy many times, with a whopping seven Oscar nominations, the first dating back to Sense and Sensibility when she was just 21. It was in 2008’s The Reader that Winslet finally earned a Best Actress Oscar and solidified her reputation as a Hollywood icon.

Winslet was no stranger to television either, as in her early career, she had several small screen roles, such as the British sci-fi Dark Season and the sitcom Get Back. Later, she embraced prestige dramas with the leading role in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce. However, it was with Mare of Easttown that Winslet truly surprised viewers with a transformative performance. As a tough-as-nails detective sergeant, Winslet gave one of the greatest performances in her entire career in this thrilling murder-mystery miniseries.

6 Matthew McConaughey

True Detective (2014 - Present)

The career of Matthew McConaughey has been categorized by consistent surprises. While early roles, such as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, highlighted his charisma, they also seemed to pigeonhole him into less serious parts. Throughout the 2000s, McConaughey gained prominence in several rom-coms, and it wasn’t until his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club that everything changed for this talented Texan, and his career gained a new lease of life in what was dubbed by the media as “The McConaissance.”

With seemingly every opportunity in front of him, McConaughey made the shocking decision to follow up his Oscar wining role with a shift into television in the HBO anthology series True Detective. This turned out to be an excellent decision, as the long-form nature of the show and the depth of his character, Detective Rust Cohle, further confirmed the widespread opinion that audiences had underestimated McConaughey all these years.

5 Julia Roberts

Homecoming (2018 - 2020)

As one of the most well-known actresses of the 1990s, Julia Roberts represented movie stardom as she balanced beloved rom-coms like Notting Hill with more challenging roles, such as the John Grisham adaptation The Pelican Brief. With an Oscar-winning performance in the biographical legal drama Erin Brockovich, Roberts entered the 21st century as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after and respected performers. While Roberts occasionally popped up on TV, such as a memorable guest role on Friends, it was an exciting surprise when she gained the leading role in the Amazon Prime psychological thriller Homecoming in 2018.

With Roberts also as executive producer, Homecoming was a deeply engaging story that balanced mystery and conspiracy in a suspenseful story about the Homecoming Transitional Support Center, a facility that supposedly helps soldiers transition to civilian life. Roberts gave an astounding performance in Homecoming, and the role represented a return to form after a string of lackluster feature films. It seems Roberts enjoyed her time on television, as she subsequently starred in the political thriller miniseries Gaslit in 2022.

4 Nicole Kidman

The Undoing (2020)

Nicole Kidman’s movie career was characterized by sheer variety as she appeared in everything from campy superhero movies like Batman Forever to deeply challenging roles like Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. This made her a movie star in the truest sense of the word, and her transformative performance as the troubled author Virginia Woolf in The Hours even earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002. This was not the only role of Kidman’s that was recognized by the Academy, as she’s also earned Oscar nominations for Moulin Rouge!, Rabbit Hole, Lion, and Being the Ricardos.

With such an impressive back catalog of Hollywood movies, Kidman avoided major TV roles for the majority of her career before finally joining other stars like Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley on HBO’s Big Little Lies. However, it would be in the thrilling murder-mystery series The Undoing that Kidman would truly surprise viewers, as her compelling performance as Grace Fraser turned the show into the most-watched HBO series of 2020 (via Variety.) Acting opposite Hugh Grant, Kidman’s performance in this bingeable domestic drama kept viewers guessing right to the end.

3 Anthony Hopkins

Westworld (2016 - 2022)

As a true acting legend, few actors working today boast the legacy of Anthony Hopkins, a performer whose astounding history with the Academy Awards speaks for itself. Hopkins' Best Actor win for his all-time great performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs represented one of the shortest amounts of screen time for leading actor awards, appearing onscreen for just 24 minutes and 52 seconds of the film. With his Oscar-winning role in The Father at age 83, Hopkins also boasts the title of oldest Best Actor winner of all time.

With so many iconic performances to his name, Hopkins could have avoided television altogether if he wanted to. However, Hopkins surprised viewers with a late-career role in the HBO sci-fi series Westworld. This performance helped add prestige to the show as it elevated audience expectations for this television adaptation of a 1973 B-movie most viewers had long forgotten about. With a compelling role as Dr. Robert Ford, the co-creator of the titular Westworld park, Hopkins made for an astounding antagonist, and his absence was sorely felt after he exited the show in season 2.

2 Meryl Streep

Big Little Lies (2017 - 2019)

Meryl Streep has become so synonymous with movie stardom that her name itself can be used as shorthand for Oscar-worthy performances. With 21 Academy Award nominations, Streep has been in the running for an Oscar more than anybody else and earned the award three times for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, and The Iron Lady. While Streep had occasional minor TV roles, for the most part, she focused on feature films and was not considered a TV actress.

This was changed when Streep was announced as a cast member for the second season of Big Little Lies. As a show that already featured major names like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley, Streep was a truly surprising addition to the cast and her role signaled how appealing television roles had become in recent years to major Hollywood stars. While Big Little Lies season 3 has yet to be officially announced, viewers will be excited to know whether Streep will return to the small screen for a main role in the long-awaited third installment.

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1 Al Pacino

Hunters (2020 - 2023)

When it comes to Hollywood legends, it does not get any more impressive than Al Pacino, a star who has astounding audiences with his performances for decades. Having achieved his breakout success as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Pacino’s method acting techniques meant he consistently lost himself in his roles and gained a level of acclaim that solidified his status as an all-time great actor. While Pacino shockingly has just one Oscar win for his leading role in Scent of a Woman, he boasts nine nominations for movies like Dog Day Afternoon, Glengarry Glen Ross, and most recently, The Irishman.

While Pacino did appear opposite Meryl Streep in the HBO miniseries Angels in America and has TV movie roles like the biopic Phil Spector, it was not until 2020 that he fully embraced television with his leading role in the Amazon Prime series Hunters. This conspiracy thriller was a surprising change of pace for Pacino and represented one of his best late-career roles. As the story of Nazi hunters in 1970s New York, Hunters was a fascinating glimpse into an underrepresented aspect of the lingering loose ends of the Third Reich.

Source: Variety

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